Our heritage
Sixty years of the Jadas name in Kliptown
The Jada family has traded from the same corner of Kliptown for more than sixty years, on ground with a genuine place in South African history.
Long before Jadas Board Hyper opened its doors, the Jada family already had deep roots in Kliptown, Soweto. For more than sixty years they ran a hardware store at the corner of Klipspruit Valley Road and Union Road, serving the community that would become part of Soweto.
That same corner sits close to the ground where history was made. On 25 and 26 June 1955, thousands of delegates gathered nearby for the Congress of the People, where the Freedom Charter, the founding document of South Africa's democratic values, was read out and adopted. The site is preserved today as the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication, home to the Kliptown Open Air Museum.
Local history holds that the Jada family's own premises played a quiet part in that moment. The building is remembered as a storeroom for delegates' belongings during the gathering, its office once served as a surgery run by Dr. Jada, and Walter Sisulu, banned from public gatherings at the time, is said to have watched the proceedings from its roof.
That is the weight behind the Jadas name. In October 2012, the family's legacy carried into the board trade as Jadas Board Hyper, giving Kliptown's carpenters, builders and DIYers a proper board supplier built on more than sixty years of trust, and still trading on that same straightforward, hands-on service today.
1955
The Congress of the People
Delegates gather in Kliptown and the Freedom Charter is adopted, on ground close to the Jada family's own premises.
2012
Jadas Board Hyper opens
The family's decades of trading in Kliptown carry into the board trade, giving local builders a proper board supplier.
2026 and beyond
Growing across Gauteng
Jadas Board Hyper continues to expand, now trading from three branches, Kliptown, Main Reef Road and Randfontein, and still built on the same straightforward, hands-on service.
Sources
- South African History Online, "The Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter"
- Government Gazette, National Heritage Resources Act declaration of the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication
- Lucille Davie, "Kliptown was a picturesque place"
- South African Labour Bulletin, "Once upon a time in Kliptown: a museum history of Soweto"
- Christa Kuljian, "The Congress of the People and the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication," Social Dynamics 35(2), 2009